Shy? promote your business without staring at your feet

I did have a real-life example of the below, but it involved banjos, a discarded wine glass and broken eggs leading to a tent… and I really don’t want to scare you guys off, so:

AWKWARD SELF-PROMOTION EXAMPLE MINUS THE BANJOS, WINE and BROKEN EGGS

You’re at a networking event or a business gathering and someone asks you what you do.

“Oh…I’m… well… I have a little sort of online business thing.”

You feel yourself going red, your neck prickles and you glance at the floor and shuffle your feet like you’ve just stepped in something unpleasant. The conversation idles until the same person asks you about your friend who’s by the bar, and what he does.

Your face lights up.

“He’s an artist. He’s fantastic, incredibly talented, I’ve never seen work like it. He has such a passion for what he does and he works all hours until things are just right. He’s got a show next week, you should go. You’d absolutely love it.”

By the bar, answering talking to someone else, your friends is muttering:

“Oh…I’m…Well…I guess I’m kind of an artist…”

Sound familiar?

Most of us have experienced that awkwardness. You’re passionate about your business, you’re just not passionate about promoting yourself.

But you need to promote your business if you want to reach the people who would love to be your customer if only they knew you were there.

So next time:

Take a sell buddy with you
If you know someone who feels similar to you, agree to go to the next networking event together and gently promote each other. A secondary recommendation is more powerful than coming from the source and it will be good for your confidence to hear a bunch of great things being said about you.

Take a well written leaflet or card
If you don’t have anyone to take with you, and you’re more comfortable writing things down, make sure you have a good business card, or even a small flyer or leaflet that you can hand to people easily if they ask about you or your business.

Promote to the right market
To get positive responses from people you talk to, try to make sure you are promoting to someone who has:

Expressed an interest in you or your business

Would benefit from your product or service

Don’t bend the ear of the bar steward till 2am after the umpteenth cocktail you’ve had to “settle your nerves.”

Hire a copywriter
If you’re feeling shy, get someone else in to write your web copy that tells the world how amazing your product is. A copywriter feeds on your passion (not blood like those unfounded rumours) but forgets your bashfulness.

Good copy works hard to promote your business to a level you’re comfortable with. Want to have a softly, softly approach, no problem, want to have a high impact in your face sales campaign, it’s done. The most important thing is that the right people find out the right things about your business and you are happy.

Keep promoting others
Promote people you admire, whose products you like, and if you want to have that real nice glow inside that isn’t from eating hot custard, then do it without wanting anything in return.

Not only is it a good thing to do, but it’s great promotion practice for those not up to blowing their own trumpet just yet.

What about you? Have you found any useful methods for getting over self-promotion shyness?

Feel free to practice promoting your business down in the comments, or a friends business, tell us about how great you or they are. Do it – you have my permission! 🙂

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About Amy Harrison

I am a copywriter, content-trainer, speaker and filmmaker teaching businesses how to avoid drab business content and write copy customers love to read. You can also find me hanging out and sharing content over on Google+.